GEA Provides Refrigeration Systems for Major Oil Production Project

GEA custom-engineered chiller packages being built at GEA’s production facility in Italy

GEA applies its compression and process refrigeration expertise to meet complex requirements of Tengizchevroil – a major oil producing company.

Serving major, multinational players

Fluor Limited - a leading global EPCM contractor with deep expertise in the hydrocarbons industry - looked to GEA to deliver a set of refrigeration systems for two major projects in Asia. GEA was recruited by Tengizchevroil, a joint venture of Chevron, ExxonMobil, KazMunayGas and LukArco. The challenge was to deliver the refrigeration systems for Tengizchevroil‘s Future Growth Project - Wellhead Pressure Management Project. Reliability, safe access, ease of installation and high performance were the stated goals GEA was required to meet.

Meeting the challenge

Industrial chillers are routinely used in oil & gas applications to provide controlled conditions for the cooling of products, machinery and heat-generating processes. The chilling systems cool the glycol-water circuit, which in turn, cools the compressor motors’ adjustable-speed drivers (ASD).

To meet this challenge, GEA produced five refrigeration packages comprising three different designs:

The 3GP ASD chiller package provides refrigerant to chill a glycol-water coolant to 40°C or lower in order to cool four wet gas sour compressor ASDs. These are comprised of a single 3GP first-stage compressor ASD and three trains of 3GP second-stage compressor ASDs. One 3GP ASD chilling system train will operate at 100%, incorporating duty and standby chiller package compressors and lube oil coolers.

The ASD cooling water chiller package produces low temperature glycol-water coolant for the 3GI injection compressor ASDs. There are two ASD chilling system trains, and normally one chiller package supplies two compressors, though each train is designed to accommodate the total glycol-water flow to cool four ASD trains.

The PBF ASD chiller package is also designed to provide refrigerant to chill a glycol-water coolant to 40°C or lower, this time for PBF compressor ASDs. There are two ASD chilling system trains, and normally one chiller package supplies two compressors, though each train is designed to accommodate the total glycol-water flow to cool four ASD trains.

GEA delivers

The location of the chillers and environmental concerns were central to GEA’s package design. The chiller packages were also designed to maximize pre-assembly, with skid dimensions and the installation environment taken into careful consideration. In addition, layout was an important specification, GEA succeeded in creating a solution that ensures safe access in and around all areas of the chiller units so that customer’s employees and project contractors can perform their work with ease and efficiency.

This is but one example of GEA’s creativity and flexibility in addressing specific, complex customer requirements.

GLOBAL PROCESS SYSTEMS SOLUTIONS

Refrigeration Solutions

GEA is one of the largest suppliers of process technology for the food industry and a wide range of other industries. The international technology group focuses on process technology and components for sophisticated production processes in various end-user markets.

In 2017, GEA generated consolidated revenues of about EUR 4.6 billion. The food and beverages sector, which is a long-term growth industry, accounted for around 70 percent.